PCARS first impressions!

[SavageEvil]

Can you take a pic? Is there a "depth of field" setting on PS4?

Working on photo, but no depth of field effect I have noticed yet. There is a bunch of visual effects that can be toggled, not that remotely sound like blur or AA.
Visual effects
Post processing filters
Lens flare
sun flare-exterior
sun flare-interior
Bloom
Heat Haze
Global Specular Irradiance
Exposure Compensation
Rain Drops
Vignette
Crepuscular Rays
Screen Dirt.

My setup is in order of listing
On
on
full
full
on
off
on
1.00
yes
no
yes
yes

I'm about to go through each of the big ones to see what happens.

 

[Finnstar]

The best offline racing experience I've ever had.

Career mode, Clio Cup, first race weekend at Donington, maximum session length, AI at 100%, no assists, hidden helmet cam.

Built up confidence and speed during the practice session, small tweaks to tyre pressure, brake balance, and importantly lowering that fuel load. Started to get a good feeling for the Clio as I strung 3 laps back to back within 0.4s. I realised I was smiling as I checked the lap time counter.

Good run in quali, pole for both races, but only by a few tenths.

Race 1 messed up the start, got flustered trying to see the lights. Battled for p3 for the first 2 laps. By lap 3 (of 16) I was 5 seconds down from p2. I set my mind to the job, hit those braking points, controlled that off throttle oversteer through/after Craner curves. Some laps I don't think I made much time up, some a few tenths. Started taking more small risks, flooring it through Craner curves and it started paying off. By lap 13 I was within 1 second. This is why I love long races!

An old bad habit came back - I expected to cruise past the AI 'without needing to even try'. I made a mistake, avoided contact but ran wide, fell back another few seconds, a controlled red mist landed but even that did not help me catch up to the leaders. P3 in the end, close to p2 bumper. But oh so satisfying, huge grin, heart racing.

Race 2 was more of the same, ok start from pole, shadowed P1 until he pitted, flustered a bit pushing too hard, then put in some clean hot laps, pitted with 5 laps to go, as I exited the pits there were 2 cars within a second of me. Ended up battling, getting passed and repassing back. Another P3 in the end. This time less of a smile, but only a little less because I felt I had that race and threw the win away.

The smile returned as soon as I noticed I had the championship lead by a few points after first weekend. Seems consistency IS king.

XB1, TX wheel

 

[m3lover1]

Another impression? My hands are damn tired from playing 100% with pad

Just finished round 2 at Snetterton, and all in all a better weekend. Qualified for pole again, but my second best lap sucked. Race 1 I finally won from pole. Come Race 2 found out I qualified 17th! First lap got up to 8th. Got up to 3rd by 7th lap and I wanted to pit so I requested pit. Said pit was occupied, so went for couple more laps and tried to request again, and didn't work again. So lap 9 I just pitted. Guess what? Wheel nut jam. Was stuck there for ages again, so after coming out I was 15th. Ended the race in 10th, but at least the weekend brought my championship standings up from 12th to 5th. I have a fighting chance!

I swear...Race 2 just tries to kryptonite my ass everytime.

 

[mr_serious]

Working on photo, but no depth of field effect I have noticed yet. There is a bunch of visual effects that can be toggled, not that remotely sound like blur or AA.

Visual effects
I'm about to go through each of the big ones to see what happens.

Is there another tab with the heading performance? That is where the setting is on the PC I think.

 

[bleeder]

No? I need to? So if there's a mandatory pit stop in Race 2, does that mean if I don't press that while entering pits it will take longer? Cause for me I pitted and pulled over, they just took forever changing tires and stuff...

I think if you have a mandatory pit stop it doesn't matter if you press the button as nothing happens. well, it didn't for me. I was spamming it but nothing. he prompts you every lap so perhaps this is why you can't request one in this instance. and don't forget the command isn't auto-assigned so probably isn't necessary if the race drops one in for you.

 

[mister dog]

Tip of the day: For those complaining about how the Focus RS handles (perceived understeer); you are probably experiencing FFB clipping.

Now that i know how to monitor clipping thanks to @blowfishrulez , i found that the Focus has major clipping when turning the wheel into corners. This might also be the case for the Clio because when i drove that the other day it steered like a pig.

If you look in the FFB section of the cars tuning menu, you'll see that the master scale is already down at 26%, but you also need to lower the Fx,Fy,Fz and Mz paremeters under there to about 68%. The difference is enormous and now the Focus feels lighter and actually oversteers in corners 👍

 

[VelocityX]

I think the reflections are awful, especially the hood reflections.

 

[mister dog]

I think the reflections are awful, especially the hood reflections.

Yeah i noticed that the side of the track is reflected on the hood, should be the sky.. No dealbreaker though as the rest of the game is so pretty graphically.

 

[CC570]

Tip of the day: For those complaining about how the Focus RS handles (perceived understeer); you are probably experiencing FFB clipping.

Now that i know how to monitor clipping thanks to @blowfishrulez , i found that the Focus has major clipping when turning the wheel into corners. This might also be the case for the Clio because when i drove that the other day it steered like a pig.

If you look in the FFB section of the cars tuning menu, you'll see that the master scale is already down at 26%, but you also need to lower the Fx,Fy,Fz and Mz paremeters under there to about 68%. The difference is enormous and now the Focus feels lighter and actually oversteers in corners 👍

So, are you saying that adjusting the FFB actually changes how a car handles?

 

[mister dog]

So, are you saying that adjusting the FFB actually changes how a car handles?

Well if you use a steering wheel and it acts like a brick through corners, it's probably not the car's physics but clipping due to FFB. At least that's the effect i have on my CSR, and as a lot of people were complaining about the Focus i bet some will have experienced this and thought it was the handling of the car.

 

[mr_serious]

So, are you saying that adjusting the FFB actually changes how a car handles?

If you set the centre spring weight of your steering wheel to 100%, and the angle of rotation to 60º how does your car handle?

FFB affects your ability to provide input to the physics model. So, yes in a way it does change the handling of the car.

 

[CC570]

If you set the centre spring weight of your steering wheel to 100%, and the angle of rotation to 60º how does your car handle?

FFB affects your ability to provide input to the physics model. So, yes in a way it does change the handling of the car.

Ok whatever. Not what I was asking about.

 

[Johnnypenso]

Ok whatever. Not what I was asking about.

When your FFB is so strong that it clips and that's easy to do with my G27 , it sends you an incorrect signal about what is happening with the car, so your responses don't match what is happening with the car and it makes it difficult to drive. I had this when I first started the game and had similar settings to @mister dog . I turned on the FFB meter, turned down my settings until I was no longer clippping and voila, everything began to feel very natural. That's the big thing for me about the FFB in this game. It feels natural when you set it up right, and you respond bascially without thinking because you know what's happening with the car just by what is happening with the wheel and what's on screen. It's different from AC for example, but both are great IMO.

 

[CC570]

When your FFB is so strong that it clips and that's easy to do with my G27 , it sends you an incorrect signal about what is happening with the car, so your responses don't match what is happening with the car and it makes it difficult to drive. I had this when I first started the game and had similar settings to @mister dog . I turned on the FFB meter, turned down my settings until I was no longer clippping and voila, everything began to feel very natural. That's the big thing for me about the FFB in this game. It feels natural when you set it up right, and you respond bascially without thinking because you know what's happening with the car just by what is happening with the wheel and what's on screen. It's different from AC for example, but both are great IMO.

Thanks, I gather it doesn't change the cars handling then.👍

 

[mister dog]

Thanks, I gather it doesn't change the cars handling then.👍

Well if you would drive a real life car with a broken steering wheel, it would definitely change the handling. Bit the point @mr_serious was making. If your wheel clips then it is 'broken' in a way.

 

[Awong124]

Tip of the day: For those complaining about how the Focus RS handles (perceived understeer); you are probably experiencing FFB clipping.

Now that i know how to monitor clipping thanks to @blowfishrulez , i found that the Focus has major clipping when turning the wheel into corners. This might also be the case for the Clio because when i drove that the other day it steered like a pig.

If you look in the FFB section of the cars tuning menu, you'll see that the master scale is already down at 26%, but you also need to lower the Fx,Fy,Fz and Mz paremeters under there to about 68%. The difference is enormous and now the Focus feels lighter and actually oversteers in corners 👍

Well if you use a steering wheel and it acts like a brick through corners, it's probably not the car's physics but clipping due to FFB. At least that's the effect i have on my CSR, and as a lot of people were complaining about the Focus i bet some will have experienced this and thought it was the handling of the car.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. If I understand what you're saying correctly, I think this is what happens to me in the F1 2012 and up F1 games. With my G27 I end up setting FFB to the minimum setting in those games, otherwise I don't feel when the steering goes light. I don't know if the CSR has stronger maximum FFB or the T300, but I'll set it to 50% and how it is from there.

This phenomenon is something that is not modeled properly in GT6. In GT6 you can never have too much steering angle. I think there is a model programmed into GT6 to create a cap on steering angle depending on speed, so you can always crank the wheel as much as you want and never have clipping.

 

[bleeder]

Yeah i noticed that the side of the track is reflected on the hood, should be the sky.. No dealbreaker though as the rest of the game is so pretty graphically.

the reflections look a bit sideways to me no matter where you are on the track. it's like only one side of the track detail is reflected.

 

[m3lover1]

I think if you have a mandatory pit stop it doesn't matter if you press the button as nothing happens. well, it didn't for me. I was spamming it but nothing. he prompts you every lap so perhaps this is why you can't request one in this instance. and don't forget the command isn't auto-assigned so probably isn't necessary if the race drops one in for you.

Yea so it's not me too. I was spamming that button every lap when pitlane opened and nothing happened. After I pitted I pressed it, boom pit request acknowledged lol

 

[mister dog]

the reflections look a bit sideways to me no matter where you are on the track. it's like only one side of the track detail is reflected.

I'll check if there's already a thread on the official forums about this, if not i'll report it.

Regarding FFB clipping, you can check it yourself when you cycle through the HUD. Upper left corner; if the line goes flat at the top, that's when your wheel is clipping. You'll eventually figure out what feeling it gives and be better able to distinguish clipping when it occurs:

 

[SavageEvil]

Is there another tab with the heading performance? That is where the setting is on the PC I think.

On PS4 no other tab I have found yet. I'm still playing and checking things here and there.

Impressions, ok now using a DS4 you will get wildly varying feels with different vehicles even within the same class of cars. I was doing a considerable about of GT3 racing last night and I spent a good deal in the BMW GT3, which is relatively neutral compared to the McLaren GT3 car which matches mode 3 controller setting very well and then there is the AMG GT3 which feels like a tank under that same mode. This game has some serious layers, one solid control setup will not give you optimum feedback for each car(think I'm wording that incorrectly), any way. I drove nearly all the GT3 cars and the BMW's are the most solid performing GT3 cars followed by the Aston Martin. Guys' I love this game, I'm happier than all hell that this game was even made, I will probably grab it on my PC later but for a console game despite the odd bug or niggles, I dare anyone to bring me another racer that does so many things correctly and even when it stumbles you have faith that it can be rectified given time.

I haven't touched my single player yet, all the cars unlocked so I just drive. DS4 i am amazed how well this thing holds up controlling these cars. Flip side is it's nigh impossible barring luck to save a race car in a spin and I have a feeling that is quite close to realistic as I've seen professionals begin to lose it and things just lock up, race tires are quite unforgiving once you exceed what they are supposed to do. Oh and the slip to grip transition is impeccable, I can feel the subtle grip loss as it's faint but it's there if you are paying attention to steering angle and how the car is oriented on the course, this I can say I never felt in GT, it's in there in Forza though. I love the analog approach of grip loss, where as GT feels like 10,9,8,7,6... Project Cars feels like 10, 9.9, 9.8, 9.7,... more feedback that gives you a chance to pick up on things you need to pilot your car to the utmost best.

 

[bleeder]

I'll check if there's already a thread on the official forums about this, if not i'll report it.

Regarding FFB clipping, you can check it yourself when you cycle through the HUD. Upper left corner; if the line goes flat at the top, that's when your wheel is clipping. You'll eventually figure out what feeling it gives and be better able to distinguish clipping when it occurs:

I'm confident there's a clipping bug with the T300 on PS4. I can go out with my standard setup and 99% of the time no clipping, then all of a sudden it clips, perhaps for one race, then back to normal. this is with the same car. same track. report that too please

 

[mister dog]

I'm confident there's a clipping bug with the T300 on PS4. I can go out with my standard setup and 99% of the time no clipping, then all of a sudden it clips, perhaps for one race, then back to normal. this is with the same car. same track. report that too please

Sounds weird to me, you see the difference on the FFB app?

 

[Gerarghini]

XBone user, I absolutely love this game This'll keep me busy for a long time.

Things I've noticed though.

-Yeah the Xbox One controller is meh for driving. I don't know if it's input lag or what actually happens during a race but it takes time to get used to. Steering has a lot of weight and the controller does not help with that.
-The aspect ratio is pretty broken on my end. I think it's my TV but the problem is that the entire game doesn't fully show on my TV. It cuts of a bit on all sides. I wish PCARS had the option in-game instead of having to check my TV (which doesn't have the option. It's a VISIO GL47HDTV if anyone's curious).
-FPS drops on Watkins Glen
-UI is pretty meh too. Haven't tried online yet.
-Can't get the Modified Car Pack. Says Bundle-Only but I already bought the LE pack so I don't know what's up.

 

[bleeder]

Sounds weird to me, you see the difference on the FFB app?

yes, that white line appears. i've had it where the line is there, wheel feels nasty, restart session and line is gone. my FFB is at 100 but i've lowered the Fxyz sliders so the wheel feels looser but sometimes it clips, mostly is doesn't. it is weird. i'll keep my eye out for when it does it again.

 

[Whitlock9mm]

I think the game is stunning! If GT wants to make a comeback, they better take notes from pCARS.

 

[bleeder]

Tip of the day: For those complaining about how the Focus RS handles (perceived understeer); you are probably experiencing FFB clipping.

Now that i know how to monitor clipping thanks to @blowfishrulez , i found that the Focus has major clipping when turning the wheel into corners. This might also be the case for the Clio because when i drove that the other day it steered like a pig.

If you look in the FFB section of the cars tuning menu, you'll see that the master scale is already down at 26%, but you also need to lower the Fx,Fy,Fz and Mz paremeters under there to about 68%. The difference is enormous and now the Focus feels lighter and actually oversteers in corners 👍

if you change the tyre pressures and sway bar settings the Clio handles pretty nicely. as default the car wants to keep the front end turning when you exit a corner, some tweaks can help sort that right out.

 

[mister dog]

if you change the tyre pressures and sway bar settings the Clio handles pretty nicely. as default the car wants to keep the front end turning when you exit a corner, some tweaks can help sort that right out.

Yeah i tested it this afternoon and there was no clipping 👍

 

[manbartz]

First post. Been lurking this forum for tunes since the GT3 days. Just wanted to say this game is freaking great, even with the DS4. Nothing like lapping the Nurb at 6AM in an E30.... ahhhhh.

 

[Speedster911]

Yeah i noticed that the side of the track is reflected on the hood, should be the sky.. No dealbreaker though as the rest of the game is so pretty graphically.

Would you say it's as pretty as FM5? Prolly not...

On PS4 no other tab I have found yet. I'm still playing and checking things here and there.

Impressions, ok now using a DS4 you will get wildly varying feels with different vehicles even within the same class of cars. I was doing a considerable about of GT3 racing last night and I spent a good deal in the BMW GT3, which is relatively neutral compared to the McLaren GT3 car which matches mode 3 controller setting very well and then there is the AMG GT3 which feels like a tank under that same mode. This game has some serious layers, one solid control setup will not give you optimum feedback for each car(think I'm wording that incorrectly), any way. I drove nearly all the GT3 cars and the BMW's are the most solid performing GT3 cars followed by the Aston Martin. Guys' I love this game, I'm happier than all hell that this game was even made, I will probably grab it on my PC later but for a console game despite the odd bug or niggles, I dare anyone to bring me another racer that does so many things correctly and even when it stumbles you have faith that it can be rectified given time.

I haven't touched my single player yet, all the cars unlocked so I just drive. DS4 i am amazed how well this thing holds up controlling these cars. Flip side is it's nigh impossible barring luck to save a race car in a spin and I have a feeling that is quite close to realistic as I've seen professionals begin to lose it and things just lock up, race tires are quite unforgiving once you exceed what they are supposed to do. Oh and the slip to grip transition is impeccable, I can feel the subtle grip loss as it's faint but it's there if you are paying attention to steering angle and how the car is oriented on the course, this I can say I never felt in GT, it's in there in Forza though. I love the analog approach of grip loss, where as GT feels like 10,9,8,7,6... Project Cars feels like 10, 9.9, 9.8, 9.7,... more feedback that gives you a chance to pick up on things you need to pilot your car to the utmost best.

That feedback you left on control impressed the puhjeebees out of me!

I think I need to get PCARS just for the physics immersion.

XBone user, I absolutely love this game This'll keep me busy for a long time.

Things I've noticed though.

-Yeah the Xbox One controller is meh for driving. I don't know if it's input lag or what actually happens during a race but it takes time to get used to. Steering has a lot of weight and the controller does not help with that.
-The aspect ratio is pretty broken on my end. I think it's my TV but the problem is that the entire game doesn't fully show on my TV. It cuts of a bit on all sides. I wish PCARS had the option in-game instead of having to check my TV (which doesn't have the option. It's a VISIO GL47HDTV if anyone's curious).
-FPS drops on Watkins Glen
-UI is pretty meh too. Haven't tried online yet.
-Can't get the Modified Car Pack. Says Bundle-Only but I already bought the LE pack so I don't know what's up.

Quite a few people here praising the control on the PS4 controller. I imagine control is the same on both consoles, but turns out it ain't. How odd.

As for the aspect ratio issue, go into Settings, and you should be able to find options that let you stretch out the borders on your screen. Are you using the TV's native resolution? Is this the ONLY game that cuts out from the edges of your TV?

 

[dimassa19]

First post. Been lurking this forum for tunes since the GT3 days. Just wanted to say this game is freaking great, even with the DS4. Nothing like lapping the Nurb at 6AM in an E30.... ahhhhh.

Welcome to GTPlanet!